Night Fever

“Look who’s talking,” Becky chided gently. “Aren’t you the one who always volunteers for every charity project the firm takes on?”

Maggie shrugged. “So I don’t listen to my own advice.” She checked her watch. “It’s almost twelve. Go to lunch. I’ll take second shift today. You need a break,” she added with a worried glance at Becky’s thin figure in the plain pink shirtwaist dress, her hair all over her face and shoulders, her makeup long gone. “And tidy up first, darlin’. You look like something the cat dragged in.”

“I look like a little green snake?” Becky asked, aghast.

Maggie stared. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well, snakes are all MY cat ever brings in.” She looked down at herself. “I can see me as a giant pink mushroom, maybe. A little green snake? Never!”

“Get out of here,” Maggie muttered.

Becky laughed. Maggie was like a tonic. Pity she couldn’t bottle her and take her home at night. Home was a worse ordeal than work had ever been, and she knew she was losing ground.

She went downstairs to the cafeteria around the corner, surprised to find herself in line with the county district attorney, Kilpatrick himself.

“Hello, Counselor,” she said, trying not to sound as shell-shocked as she felt. He was just dynamite at close quarters, especially in that watered gray suit that emphasized his broad shoulders and dark complexion.

“Hello, yourself,” he mused, glancing at her with faint interest. “Where have you been hiding? The elevator is beginning to bore me.”

She looked up at him with raised brows. “Do tell? Why not try the staircase and see if you can smoke the janitors out of hiding?”

He chuckled. He wasn’t smoking one of those hideous cigars, but she was sure he had one tucked away.

“I’ve already smoked him out of hiding,” he confessed. “Caught the trash can on fire this morning. Didn’t you hear the fire alarm go off?”

She had, but Maggie had checked and it was a false alarm. “You’re kidding,” she said, not sure how to take him.

“No joke. I was on the phone and not paying too much attention to where the ashtray was. A mistake I won’t make twice,” he added. “My secretary had the fire chief make a personal call and give me some literature on fire safety.” He pursed his lips and his dark eyes sparkled. “She wouldn’t be a relative of yours, by any chance?”

She laughed. “I don’t think so, but she sounds like my kind of secretary.”

He shook his head. “You women. A man isn’t safe.” He glanced ahead at the long line with resignation and flipped his wrist to check his watch. “I had two hours when I started, but I had to have my notes typed and pick up another brief before I could get time for lunch.” He shook his head. “Having my office halfway across town from the courthouse isn’t working out too well.”

“Think of the exercise you’re getting,” she said. “That has to be a fringe benefit.”

“It would be, if I needed to lose weight.” He studied her slender body. “You’ve lost some. How’s your brother?” he asked pointedly.

She felt nervous when he looked at her like that. She wondered if he had microscopic vision, because he certainly seemed to see beneath the skin. “He’s all right.”

“I hope he’s keeping his nose clean,” he said evenly. “The Harris boys are up to their collective necks in trouble. Running with them could get him into a scrape you won’t be able to talk him out of.”

She looked up. “Would you send him to prison?”

“If he breaks the law,” he said. “I’m a public servant. The taxpayers expect me to earn the salary I’m paid. Somebody must have told you how I feel about drug pushers.”

“My brother isn’t one, Mr. Kilpatrick,” she said earnestly. “He’s a good boy. He’s just fallen in with a bad crowd.”

“That’s all it takes, you know. The jails are full of good boys who played follow the leader one time too many.” His eyes narrowed. “Do you remember I told you that something big was going down? Maybe a hit? Don’t forget it. Keep your brother at home nights.”

“How?” she asked, spreading her hands. “He’s bigger than I am and I can’t even talk to him anymore.” She drew a hand over her eyes. “Mr. Kilpatrick, I’m so tired of holding up the world,” she said, half under her breath.

He took her arm. “Come on.”

He drew her out of line, to her astonishment, and right out the door.

“My lunch,” she protested.

“To hell with this. We’ll eat at a Crystal.”

She’d never set foot in a Mercedes-Benz in her life until then. It had real leather seats, gray ones, with a headrest and plush comfort. It even smelled like real leather. The dash had wood panels, and they were probably real, too. The car had a polished metallic blue finish, and she caught her breath at the beauty of the carpeted interior.

“You look shocked,” he murmured as he started it.

“The engine really purrs, doesn’t it?” she asked as she fastened her seat belt automatically. “And I guess the seats are real leather? Is it automatic?”

He smiled indulgently. “Yes, yes, and yes. What do you drive?”

“A renovated Sherman tank—at least, that’s what it feels like early on a cold morning.” She smiled across at him. “You don’t have to take me out to lunch. I’ll make you late.”

“No, you won’t. I’ve got time. Is your brother a pusher, Rebecca?”

She gaped. “No!”

He glanced at her as he eased into the turning lane. “Fair enough. Try to keep him out of it. I’ve got my sights on the Harris family. I’m going to nail them before I get out of office, no matter what it takes. Drugs on the street, that’s one thing. Drugs in grammar school—not in my county.”

“You can’t be serious!” she exclaimed. “In midtown, maybe, but not in Curry Station Elementary!”

“We found crack,” he said, “in a student’s locker. He was ten years old and a pusher.” He looked across at her, scowling. “My God, you can’t be that naive. Don’t you know that hundreds of grammar school kids are sent to jail every year for pushing narcotics, or that one kid out of every four has addicted parents in Georgia?”

“I didn’t,” she confessed. She leaned her head against the window. “Whatever happened to kids going to school and playing with frogs and having spelling bees and sock hops?”

“Wrong generation. This one can dissect a bee and the hops are in the beer they drink. They still go to school, of course, where they learn subjects in grammar school that I didn’t get until I was in high school. Accelerated learning, Miss Cullen. We want our kids to be adults early so that we won’t have the bother of childhood traumas. We’re producing miniature adults, and the latchkey kids are at the top of the class.”

“Mothers have to work,” she began.

“So they do. Over fifty percent of them are out there in the work force, while their kids are split up and locked up and divided into stepfamilies.” He lit a cigar without asking if she minded. He knew that she did. “Women won’t have total equality until men can get pregnant.”

She grinned. “You’d have one horrible delivery, I imagine.”

He chuckled softly. “No doubt, and with my luck, it would be a breech birth.” He shook his head. “It’s been a rotten day. I’ve been prosecuting two juveniles as adults this week and I’m bitter. I want more parents who care about their damned kids. It’s my favorite theme.”

“You don’t have any children, I guess?” she asked shyly.

He pulled into a Crystal hamburger place and parked. “No. I’m old-fashioned. I think kids come after marriage.” He opened his door and got out, helping her out before he locked it. “Feel like a hamburger or chili?”

“Chili,” she said instantly. “With Tabasco sauce on the side.”

“You’re one of those, are you?” he mused, his dark eyes teasing.